Lincoln Home, National Guard face shutdown

Workers at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site on Monday prepared to put nearly 170 years of history on hold. More than 500 local employees of the Illinois National Guard, meanwhile, were advised furloughs will begin Tuesday as Congress failed to reach a budget deal overnight and plunged the nation into a partial federal government shutdown.

More than 500 local employees of the Illinois National Guard, meanwhile, were advised furloughs could begin Tuesday as Congress plunged the nation into a partial federal government shutdown.

“We’re hoping for the best and preparing for the worst,” Dale Phillips, site superintendent at the Lincoln Home, said Monday.

Lawmakers in Washington failed to reach a budget deal by a midnight deadline as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services.

The shutdown, the first since the winter of 1995-96, closed national parks, museums along the Washington Mall and the U.S. Capitol visitors center. Agencies like NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency will be all but shuttered. People classified as essential government employees -- such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and most food inspectors -- will continue to work.

Phillips said tours of the home at the Lincoln Home would be canceled and the visitor center and parking lots closed Tuesday. About 30 employees would be furloughed, including Phillips.

Only law enforcement personnel would remain at the site, which had more than 295,000 visitors in 2012, according to the National Park Service.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln purchased the home in 1844 for $1,200. The home and neighborhood became part of the National Park System in 1971.

Capt. Dutch Grove of the Illinois National Guard said 530 civilian technicians in Springfield are among 1,300 statewide who would be furloughed without a budget agreement.

“We’re hopeful, kind of like papers in college, they’ll get it done overnight,” Grove said Monday. Employees in “essential” positions — including security, mobilization, honor details and coordinators of sexual assault prevention programs — would be exempt.

Guard and reserve members continue to report, though Grove said an extended shutdown would force cancellation of weekend drills. The next drill is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

Nicky Stratton was executive director of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau during the 1995 government shutdown. The Lincoln Home site was closed from early December to early January.

“There are other things to do in Springfield … and people won’t turn away just because of that,” said Stratton, “but this is really a sad situation.”

This is the second time in two years operations at the Lincoln Home have been threatened by a midnight budget deadline. Phillips recalled the 2011 shutdown was averted only at the last minute.

Page 2 of 2 - “We went right up to the 11th hour,” Phillips said. “I was glued to my television waiting to see if they will pass something.”